Sunday, July 29, 2012

Kids Sunday Night

We were so excited to have a family visit our church today
 that we had given a tract to and talked to on "Free Day"!  The mom grew up going to various churches and but now feels she is atheist, her kids loved Sundy School and Jr. Church and begged their mom to come back.  She talked to my husband after church and is sincerely searching for something and since her kids seemed to like it said that they would be back.  Please pray for Patricia as she truly needs salvation!

Tonight for evening services we had our young people lead and do the services.  It was so great to see our church's future leaders,
leading the music and sing and preach. 


Andrew, our youngest preacher boy, was a little nervous
but did an awesome job with a little encouragement from pastor.


Chris lead the music and also gave a sermon on God's love.


Andrew's sermon had everyone laughing as he described
the difference between creation and evolution and the crazy stuff scientists want us to believe.


Elisabeth and Victoria played a beautiful duet of "Day by Day".


 Ryan just joined the teen group this year but already has shown that he is a natural leader.  He challenged everyone to be the salt of the earth.


J.J. described what idols were and how we needed to avoid them
and put our focus on God and His Word.


The Corbin girls sang a beautiful song about salvation.


And Colin spoke on Colossians 3 and how we need to die to the world and seek those things above.  So many good messages and specials, I got so involved I forgot to get pictures of the other kids that also participated.  It went so well tonight my husband plans on doing this every time we have a fifth Sunday in a month.  Loved it!


Tonight we also had one of our missionary families, the Driskells drop by.  It was wonderful to see them and Bro. Driskell gave us an update on Camp Grace and all the work that is being done as they cleanup and start to rebuild from last month's forest fire.  It was so wonderful to see the joy of the Lord in them as rebuild camp from scratch and hear them share how God has guided them in so many ways and seen Him provide their every need.  God is so good, Amen! 



Thursday, July 26, 2012

Snake and Cake

As my husband and I were on our morning run, my husband was running several feet behind me as he was running with our Great Dane who did not want to run today.  I had my eyes on a mile marker ahead and was pushing it to trim some time off my mile.  Suddenly I heard my husband yell at me and I stopped and turned to him.  He pointed at a spot on the sidewalk I had passed and there lay a huge, coiled up bull snake!


Chep said Shebear stopped running and wouldn't budge
 but was looking at the sidewalk ahead.  Chep looked at the spot she was staring at and he saw me as I was ran and my right foot stepped an inch from the snakes head and then I stepped over it's body with my left foot.  The snake tried to strike at me and then at Koalie as we passed it but praise the Lord we were running and were out of it's reach within seconds.  When Chep called to me and I stopped I was several feet away from it.  I can not believe I did not see it and Chep says it was a miracle I did not step on it! 
Thanking God for His hand of protection this morning!

Today was Chandler's birthday!  He wasn't feeling the greatest but we still were able to celebrate and give him a cake and presents.


We thank God for the 20 years of adventure and fun we have been
 able to share with our son and thank God for the joy and laughter he has brought to our lives.  Love you so much Chandler!





Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Free Day

We were up and out the door at 6 am this morning as we finished set-up for "Free Day".  People started arriving at 8 am and by the time of the airshow at 11 am, the parking lot was full!



We were able to park almost 200 cars in our parking lot.  As we waited for the airshow to start, we had several hundred people come and eat free food and also let their kids get their faces painted.


The hot dogs, chips and snacks were a huge hit and this gave us a chance to talk to and witness to many people. 




The kids loved getting their face painted
and loved hearing the gospel story told through the colors.  We had many parents hear the story too and a few parents actually sought out members of our church that were there helping and asked if we could further explain the gospel message!  It was so exciting to share the
Good News with so many people!

The line to the face painting grew and grew and our people
 were face painting non-stop for almost four hours! 
 Chandler had a huge line as he was drawing dragons, spiders and bats and all the boys loved it!  Instead of face paint we used watercolor colored pencils and these were amazing as they worked beautifully after being dipped in water.

The Thunderbirds started at exactly 11 am
and they were awesome to watch!


All during this time, we had people touring the church and saying how beautiful it was.  We talked with so many people, invited everyone to church and witnessed to all those who would listen. 
We had several show interest in coming to church and we are praying that we will see them soon!

As everyone was leaving, they tried to give my husband or the food ladies money.  We refused all money and explained that Jesus had given a free gift to all and that gift can not be paid for so thus we also wanted to bless others and give them a free gift.  We had several people get very upset because they just could not understand why we would do everything for free.  Thus it is with the world and God's precious gift of salvation.  So many people can not understand and will not accept the free gift that God has so freely given to all and feel that they must somehow find a way to pay for it.  Praying for all the people we met and had contact with and praying that many will be saved!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Getting Ready and Using Coupons

Today we were busy running, shopping and getting for "Cheyenne Day"
which is tomorrow.  Many, many people are off work tomorrow
and there are a lot of activites going on around town. 
One of the biggest events is the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds performing and doing a show over the local college.  Since our property borders the college, this is a big day for us too.  We call it "Free Day" as we let people park on the church property for free, hand out tracts, and give out free hot dogs and snacks.  This year we will be doing free face painting for the kids,  using the colors of the wordless book, and telling them
what each color means as we paint.  We are so excited to have a parking lot full of people to witness to!


We had quite a bit of shopping to do today as we picked up
 last minute items for tomorrow.  Our grocery store was having a stock up sale on cleaners and I was able to purchase a few things for the church.  I love being able to use coupons to help the church get the best buys and save them money.   With my coupons I was able to get all this for only five dollars!  I love my coupons! 






Monday, July 23, 2012

My Awesome Weekend Trip

I have been praying for a few months to be able to go and surprise
 my brother for his birthday.  God answered my prayer and my husband let me leave on Friday morning.  I drove 12 hours straight and got to his house at 6 pm that night.  He was not only surprised but shocked to see me!  He said that God knew what he needed as he had a terrible week at work and was not looking forward to his birthday.  His wife is serving in Afghanistan and being mom and dad to two little girls while being on active duty and working long hours is not easy!

On Saturday I took the girls shopping for their daddy's presents and then we went out to lunch.  The girls are adorable and so silly! 


The North Dakota State fair was Saturday
so we spent the rest of the day and night walking and looking
 and eating and playing!  We had so much fun!


After church on Sunday, I helped the girls
make cupcakes and decorate them.


So careful signing the card, "Love you daddy, you are the best daddy ever!"  We then went exploring and rock hunting as my brother is a huge rock hound.  For dinner we barbequed steak and corn on the cob and then celebrated my brothers 34th birthday.



He loved the presents the girls gave him and told me he loved his birthday!  Praising God for giving me the opportunity to go and show my little brother how much he means to me!

This morning I drove another 12 hours and listened to marriage enrichement tapes and wonderful music all the way home. 
I am so excited to be home and excited for all the stuff
we have planned at church this week!



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Some Much Needed Weeding

You know it's time to weed the flower bed when the weeds
are up to your knees!  I hate getting my fingers dirty and just hate, hate, hate getting dirt under my nails!  Thus I only weed the flower beds on rare occasions!  We had a huge, huge all day rainstorm on Monday,
so I thought I would take advantage of the ground still being wet and get the flower beds looking presentable again.


When we were in Idaho in May I went by my dad's house
 and dug up some Hen's and Chicks and some lilacs.  I planted the lilacs as soon as we got home but the little Hens and Chicks have been sitting in a pot in the front yard waiting to be planted.  Chep found this old rusty bucket among the lilac trees at my dad's and thought it would be a nice addition to our flower beds. I love the Hens and Chicks cascading out of the bucket, plus they will spread fast and cover a lot of area around the bucket.  I love having a few plants and trees from my dad's house as every time I see them they remind me of home and my dad. 
I still miss him so much!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Baby Shower

Tonight for Ladies G.A.B. Night we had Saraina's baby shower and had so much fun!  Miss Nel made the cutest Noah's ark cake!


Everyone blew up ballons and then put them under their shirts. Whoever's 'baby bump" matched Saraina's won the game.
The ladies loved this and we laughed and laughed!




We also played the bottle game where,
whoever drank their bottle first won!


We then molded babies out of PlayDoh and Raina
chose the cutest baby sculpture.  I thought Pam's was the cutest baby with a little curl of hair on the top of his head!




I gave a devotion on fear and how, as Chandler and Saraina
 raise this precious child, they need not fear the future but give Keith into God's hand everyday as God will protect him and everything that happens in Keith's life, good or bad, will be for the glory of God. 
I read Psalm 91 and we prayed for Keith to grow to love God and serve God for all his life.

Our ladies were so sweet and gave Saraina so much cute stuff and some things she really needed!


Of course the food was so good and I totally killed my diet!
God blessed us with another wonderful night to Gather Around the Bible and fellowship with each other.  I love our G.A.B. nights!
 



Monday, July 16, 2012

We Got It!

We finally, finally got our building permit! 


Last Monday my husband was told once again that we were denied for our building permit.  For almost five months the man that has been in charge of issuing our permit has come up with reason after reason to deny our permit.  Finally my husband had had enough!  According to county requirements there was no real reason for us to be denied our permit.  My husband threatened to call the county commissioner and the man in charge grudgingly said he would approve us.  Last week was so hectic with my husband's heart attack that he was not able to follow up.  Friday one of our deacons went to pick up our permit and sat in the office, as again, the man in charge of issuing our permit told him that we should not be able to get the permit but that it had been approved.  Why all the hassle in getting our permit?  We truly do not know why, but we do know that every church who has applied for a permit in the last five years has had the worst time trying to get their permit approved!

We are praising God that we now have the permit and that we can start the cement work and get the building up! 



Friday, July 13, 2012

Thanking God

After three days in the hospital, Chep was released this morning.
He was so happy to be home and sat in his chair and ate popscicles and watched Gunsmoke!  Chandler and Saraina came over for dinner and we sat and played games, watched a video and laughed together.  I can not tell you how many times my eyes filled with tears as I watched everyone laughing and joking with each other.   How easily we could have been having a day of sorrows and tears and attending a funeral instead of laughing and loving each other.  As Chandler and Saraina left to go home we gathered together and held hands and prayed and praised and thanked God for keeping our family intact and together. 
I know that there will be a time that we as a family will be seperated here on earth but for now I will continue to thank God that we are still here to love Him and serve him together.  



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Frauds and Scams

It was late when I left the hospital last night and I was starving so I stopped at Burger King for a quick bite.  I handed my card over to pay and the guy said it was declined.  I was totally confused and paid him in cash thinking it was just their machine or something.  Today when I went to McDonald's and grabbed a Frappe, my card was again declined.  What???

Debit Card

I again paid in cash and pulled into a parking spot and called the bank. 
They immediately told me my card had been suspended and tranferred me to Fraud Services.  I had to answer several minutes of questions to confirm it was truly me and then was asked if I had recently paid for membership to an online senior dating service.  Shocked I told them "NO".  According to our spending history our bank did not feel that it was a purchase I would make so when the transaction came through they immediately suspended my card thinking my card had been compromised.  We are praising God that we have such a great bank and they caught this immediately before anymore fraudulent charges could be made to our account! 

  
We have seen so many of our church people be affected by people trying to scam them recently.  God says that money is the root of all evil and it is so true.  Everyone wants more money so it is easy to prey on these people by offering them money that is not real.  One of our ladies called me and told me she had recieved an email saying she won the lottery.  They sent her a check and asked her not to tell the bank it was for the lottery but was instead an insurance check.  I immediately told her this did not sound right and that it sounded like a scam and I advised her not to cash it.  She was upset with me and took it to the bank where they explained to her that it was indeed a scam.  A young man in our church received a call from the government saying he had qualifed for a grant and if he would give them his account number they would deposit the funds within 15 minutes.  Luckily he questioned the man on the phone and found several things that did not sound right and did not give them his account number.  This too was a scam.  We have even had several people try to scam our church recently.  One where we were sent a hand written bill for 350 light bulbs that even had the name of one of our deacons on it.  When I called the number on the paper the man kept telling me that the lightbulbs should arrive any day by UPS.  Not only had we not ordered lightbulbs but the man on the phone would not directly answer my questions.  When I asked him if this was a scam he hung up on me.  My husband also recieved a email to the church from a "business owner" who, since she was doing so well in her business, promised God she'd give a large sum of money to other churches and said her pastor had told her of our church.  My husband emailed her a couple of times but thought it was fishy when she would not tell him her church or Pastor's name.  It too turned out to be a scam!


People are becoming very bold and trying to trick others out of money anyway they can.  I encourage people to be careful when they are contacted by email or by phone by someone saying they won, been chosen to receive or earned money, especially if they never entered or signed up for something.  There are many good sites online about internet and phone fraud and I advise everyone to check out any money opportunites by going to http://www.snopes.com/fraud/topscams.asp ,
or one of the many other sites that exploit the many scams out there. 

  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

A Sign and a Reason

Wow, has it really only been twenty four hours since God
took us on an unexpected trip?  Last night on visitation Chep was feeling poorly and the ladies said they didn't think he looked good.  Later that night as he and I were taking a walk he started sweating profusely and had shortness of breathe.  A couple blocks later he could not breathe at all, had pain in his left arm and shoulder and was grasping his chest because of the pain.  I called Mason and he quickly drove to us and took us to the E.R..


I love our VA hospital here because most nights there is no lines and no wait.  Chep was rushed in immediately and given nitroglycerin and an EKG.  The EKG came out negative and so started a battery of tests.  His white blood cell count was extremely high, his O2 was low and he was in a lot of pain.  At 2 a.m. this morning they admitted him so they could watch him and continue to run tests on him.  This afternoon we talked with the doctor and the surgeon and they both said how extremely healthy Chep was and that they and all their collegues were baffled as per what exactly was going on with Chep.  They said something was wrong but they didn't know why or what.  The closet thing they could guess was that Chep had a viral infection that had affected his cardio system and gave him symptoms similar to a heart attack. 
He is still in the hospital tonight as they continue to monitor his heart
and try to keep his pain and O2 under control.



This was the veiw out Chep's window and I stared for many hours
 at the unique architecture and roof tiles as I prayed.  I think there is a reason that the doctor's are perplexed at Chep's case and that is because there really isn't a physical problem but a spiritual problem.  One of our family members was actaully having a spiritual issue and Chep's near heart attack and illness was a sign, a reason, an answer to their prayer and mine.  We did not pray for Chep to have a heart attack but it definitely was the answer to a question that had been asked earlier that day.  I wish I could tell their story as it is amazing, but it is not my story to tell.  Chep is still in the hospital tonight but feeling much better.  They are waiting on a blood test to come back and for his O2 to go up before they let him go home but we are hoping he will be released soon.

We have such an awesome church family who not only
called and texted but also showed up at the ER to support us.  We had missionaries scheduled to come in tonight and a couple of the ladies took over my duties and cleaned the prophet's chambers and cooked dinner for them, such a huge burden off my shoulders!  Chandler and Mason have been in the ministry for so long that they easily took over for their dad and took special care of the missionary and made sure services ran smoothly.   



Our missionaries tonight were the Hurst family and they going to the Philippines.  Ivy is from the Phillipines and it was so exciting to hear how God has burdened their hearts to go there!

We are praying that Chep will be released tomorrow and that he gets a full night of rest and healing!





Monday, July 9, 2012

I Finished the Bathroom!

In March, the men tore up my bathroom as they put in a new floor and bathtub.  I repainted the bathroom but never got around to buying new base board and getting it put up.  I was so glad I didn't when a few weeks ago the new tub got a crack in it and so Home Depot replaced it.  They finished the work a couple of weeks ago and today I touched up the paint, bought the base board and painted it and put it in.
I have gold accents all over the bathroom so after I painted the base board I added gold accents that match the accents I have painted on the cupboard doors and the light switches.


I had to give the base boards three coats of paint
 because of the dark color.


I then sprayed some gold spray paint on a plate.  Be sure to make a good puddle of the paint.  I could have used acrylic paint but I like the consistency of spray paint and how fast it dries.  Do not use a foam plate as spray paint will melt and eat through the foam!
 (I learned this the hard way!)


Wad up a plastic bag and dip it in the spray paint and then pat it on the plate to see the texture and amount of paint it leaves with each pat.


When you are satisified with the effect, pat the paint on the base board.  The spray paint dries very fast so you will need to rewad your bag and dip it in the paint several times until you cover the area you want covered.



The bathroom now looks great and I am happy I finally got it done!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Special Sunday Speakers


We have always been taught that the music is so important and sets the tone for worship service.  This is so true and you could feel the difference today as Bro. Richard played the piano for our services.  He has only been taking piano lessons for three years but he is very talented and can play anything!  Richard played with such heart and the atmosphere was joyful and exciting. 



Bro. AJ explained that the theme of their ministry in the Phillipines is
"Mansion over the HIlltop".  Bro. AJ and Bro. Richard sang this, first in English and then in their language.  Very, very beauitful! 


Bro AJ preached the morning service and Bro. Richard preached this evening.  Such wonderful, convicting messages, I was in tears by the end of each one!  We also had visitors at both the morning and evening services.  It was a wonderful, wonderful day of services!

Chandler and Sarina moved into their new house last week
and tonight after church, as they were leaving to go to their home,
Chandler told us he was taking Dawn with him.



Chandler got DawnTreader out of a batch of kittens from our mama cat when Chandler was 9 years old.  Dawn has been a one person cat and only talked to Chandler and would only let Chandler pet her.  She was devastated when Chandler left for Bible college and cried for months.  She finally started talking to us and letting us pet her but she still cried for Chandler.  When Chandler moved back home, Dawn was happy to be with her boy again!  Chandler and Saraina were not allowed pets at their apartment so again Chandler and Dawn were seperated.  Chandler loves owning his own home as he now can have his beloved cat with him.  We will miss Dawn but we know she will be much happier with her boy!  I am happier too, as there will no longer be long gray hair to clean up!!